Trending Athletes – March 5th 2018

A fantasy guide to who is on a recent upswing

By Mark Abell Mar 5, 2018, 2:57pm EST

MLB: Spring Training-New York Yankees at Philadelphia Phillies

Here are trending athletes in the sports world and why.

Baseball

Former #1 overall draft pick Gordon Beckham leads the spring league with a .588 avg through 7 games. It could mean nothing but he’s making a name for himself as he battles Robinson Cano, Jean Segura and Kyle Seager for an infield spot.

Awesome. It looks like Gordon Beckham hasn't gotten any love so I'll take him with the $1/H $3/HR. Thank you!
— Colton Swanson (@ColtonSwanson) March 5, 2018

Miguel Andujar decided that somehow the Yankees don’t have enough HR depth as he currently sits 2^nd in spring training with 4 home runs. Gleyber Torres and Miguel will be battling for starting spot at 3B to start the year.

Football

Shaquem Griffin. I mean, did anyone see his combine stats?!?

They said he couldn’t play football without a hand. He played. They said he couldn’t play big time college football. He did. They said he probably shouldn’t be invited to the combine. He was. Shaquem Griffin just ran the fastest 40 for a linebacker in 15 years. pic.twitter.com/Wf0cttuNXz
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) March 4, 2018

Basketball

Will Barton. As Natty writes, the Nuggest are 9-3 since Jan 22^nd, Will has played the 3^rd most minutes since then and he currently sits 66^th in rankings, down from 115^thpreseason as he’s averaging over a steal per game since Jan 22nd.

Nicholas Batum has been averaging 8 assists, 2 steals, and 10+ points over his last 6 games.

Hockey

Ryan Ellis (70% owned) is ranked 14^th over the last 2 weeks as he has 3 goals and 8 assists over the last 12 games as the Preds have won 10 of their last 12.

Roberto Luongo, Ryan Ellis and @PatrikLaine29 were our three ⭐️s of Sunday. #NHLOnTheFly pic.twitter.com/VGSAGYMrvD
— NHL Network (@NHLNetwork) March 5, 2018

Eric Staal and linemates have combined for 26 points in 3 games! The Wild have won 5 straight

Tennis

Dominic Thiem. The Austrian (currently 6^t^h in ATP rankings) was a semifinalist at the Qatar Open to start the year, he won the Argentina Open half way through February and then made it to the Quarterfinals in the Rio open and Mexico Open.

Many tipped Shapovalov to score the upset. But @ThiemDomi wasn't having it. #AMT2018 https://t.co/GkaAuIEFhD
— Tennismash (@tennismash) March 1, 2018

Golf

While Phil Mickelson just had his first win since 2013 BritishOpen, all eyes are on Justin Thomas who followed up a first place finish at the Honda Classic with a 2^nd place finish at the World Golf Classic: Mexico

NASCAR

Kevin Harvick won back to back races for the 5^th time in his career (he’s never won 3 in a row) but he led for 214 of the 276 laps, the most ever by a racer at Las Vegas.

Got any other ideas? Feel free to add them in the comments section below!